Sunday, March 1, 2015

Genital Integrity Awareness Week 2015 will be kicking off in March, and we need YOUR help to make this year's 7-day event a life-changing one. As advocates travel to D.C. to participate, and floods of tourists the world over gather in Washington D.C. for the height of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, it is imperative that everyone in attendance has easy to access materials on hand. Items that parents and professionals, young and old, from all backgrounds and locations in life will want to take home with them for further review. Making this happen takes a significant amount of planning and organization on the part of many people, and it also takes financial support.

If you have never been to GIAW in D.C., allow us to paint a quick picture:

You are standing with half a dozen others in front of the U.S. Capitol, and a group of 400 senior high students come up interested in what you have to share. Their teachers and chaperones are doing their best to shuffle them quickly by for a group picture and have them file back onto the bus. A lot of the time they are yelling at students to ignore demonstrators and to 'not take anything!' You have less than 5 minutes to talk with as many of these young people -- future parents who will be determining the rate of genital autonomy in the next generation -- as you can and get items into their hands that they will not toss onto the ground or into the trash, but actually want to take back with them, look up on their phone once they're on the bus, and hold onto for curiosity's sake.

This happens every single hour. Sometimes multiple times an hour. Sun-up to sun-down. The need is great. The impact is monumental. And we need your support in this important effort.

Individuals: If you are sponsoring in honor of someone, we invite you to include a note with your gift of any amount.

Businesses and Groups: Please include a note with your organization name/URL. Sponsors will be shared with the peaceful parenting Facebook and Twitter communities, as well as the Saving Our Sons and Genital Integrity Awareness Week audiences on both social networks. Businesses donating $100 or more will also have a hyperlinked image or logo featured on the front page of DrMomma.org and SavingSons.org throughout the entire month of March. Google stats puts DrMomma readership at approximately 500,000/month, with 152,000+ on Facebook and Twitter. The Saving Our Sons community has over 53,000 active members. Sponsors will also be permanently listed at the Genital Integrity Awareness Week website and featured on the GIAW Facebook page. Visit past sponsors from 2014 and 2013.

If you have an item you wish to donate to benefit GIAW, email SavingSons@gmail.com (In the past baby wraps, carriers, cloth diapers, knitted hats, restoration devices, books and DVDs have been donated to support genital autonomy efforts. Any and all are welcome and appreciated!)

All Supporters: All who register will receive GIAW Registration materials, and attendees will also receive a name tag badge (that attaches to the lanyard) for this year's event. Register as a Supporter or Attendee below, or include a note with your donation to GIAW. You may also email SavingSons@gmail.com at any time.

Include a note during check-out or email to SavingSons@gmail.com If not otherwise indicated, a black 'His Body, His Choice' bracelet will be sent with an assortment of cards.
Note that the GIAW event is not registered as a federal charity as of Feb 2015, and therefore donations are not currently IRS tax deductible. All activities and events hosted happen because of voluntary efforts and grassroots action and fundraising.

On behalf of the next generation of babies to be born, and the adults they will become -

"In honor of little Phineas - a very happy, 19-months-old, intact, little man."✭ Noelle L."In honor of Cael and Sloan, our perfect boys, and in deep gratitude for the gentle information we found when we silently stalked the Internet."✭ Danelle F.

✭ Patrick F.

✭ Christine V.

Budget BreakdownNote: Materials will only be ordered in the quantities that funding is raised for.These are the numbers that have been needed during past GIAW events in D.C. and those we are working to fund for 2015.
Banners and Signs = $700(if there is a sign you'd like to see professionally created for use at GIAW and future events, email SavingSons@gmail.com)

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The SOS community is embarking on a new venture that is part awareness-raising, part fun! With our "Flat Stanley" project for Genital Autonomy, our little GA person will be traveling across the globe, having photos taken with families like YOU along the way.

But before we get started, we need a name... Something catchy, fun, inclusive of all sexes (all, regardless of sex, are equally deserving of intact genitals), and related in some fashion to genital autonomy and/or saving babies. You can submit your ideas at the Saving Our Sons Facebook page, in a comment below this post, or by email to SavingSons@gmail.com On Saturday, Jan 17 we will select a winning name for the project from among those submitted, and the individual whose idea it is will win a limited edition genital autonomy water bottle and GA wristband of your choice! [These items and more are also available for purchase here: http://www.savingsons.org/p/info-cards.html]

If you would like to be one of the first families to receive this GA person when it heads out on the town, send your mailing name and address to SavingSons@gmail.com When our project kicks off this Saturday (under its new name) there will be four steps involved:

1) The GA person will arrive to you in an envelope with a log chart. Write your name/location on the log chart in the next available sign-in spot.

2) Take a picture with, or of, the GA person in a local spot (this could be your favorite place, a local landmark, something representative of how you spend your day, your child's favorite park, etc.).

4) Email to receive the next family's address for mailing, and send the GA person along to the next stop. [Note that this will take 1 envelope and 1 first class stamp for mailing]. Please only participate if you will follow through with this last step in a timely manner. You may wish to write a little note of genital autonomy (or add a sticker) to the outside of the envelopment before mailing. Seed of information are planted by those who see the envelope along the way...

KIDS: To color the International Symbol of Genital Autonomy on your own, have a parent print the outlined version from www.GenitalAutonomySymbol.org Print at 45% if you'd like to cut it out to fit inside a standard 4x6 envelope.

Friday, January 9, 2015

A new study has found that regardless of cultural background, circumcised boys are more likely than intact boys to develop autism spectrum disorder before the age of 10 years, with an especially higher risk factor for developing autism before the age of five. The same study (unexpectedly) found that circumcised boys from non-Muslim families are also more likely to develop hyperkinetic disorder (hyperactivity, ADHD and neurological disturbances).

Researchers hypothesize that the extreme pain of genital cutting an infant endures during (and following) circumcision may impact the brain and the way that the body responds to stress. Previous observations have suggested PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is widespread among infants circumcised at birth (with higher rates of 'colic' and reflux, failure to thrive, increased difficulty breastfeeding, agitation, fussiness, withdrawal) and that the brain is permanently impacted.

Abstract

Objective: Based on converging observations in animal, clinical and ecological studies, we hypothesised a possible impact of ritual circumcision on the subsequent risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in young boys.

Design: National, register-based cohort study.

Setting: Denmark.

Participants: A total of 342,877 boys born between 1994 and 2003 and followed in the age span 0–9 years between 1994 and 2013.
Main outcome measures: Information about cohort mem- bers’ ritual circumcisions, confounders and ASD outcomes, as well as two supplementary outcomes, hyperkinetic dis- order and asthma, was obtained from national registers. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) associated with foreskin status were obtained using Cox proportional hazards regression analyses.

Results: With a total of 4986 ASD cases, our study showed that regardless of cultural background circumcised boys were more likely than intact boys to develop ASD before age 10 years (HR 1⁄4 1.46; 95% CI: 1.11–1.93). Risk was par- ticularly high for infantile autism before age five years (HR 1⁄4 2.06; 95% CI: 1.36–3.13). Circumcised boys in non- Muslim families were also more likely to develop hyperkin- etic disorder (HR 1⁄4 1.81; 95% CI: 1.11–2.96). Associations with asthma were consistently inconspicuous (HR1⁄40.96; 95% CI: 0.84–1.10).

Conclusions: We confirmed our hypothesis that boys who undergo ritual circumcision may run a greater risk of developing ASD. This finding, and the unexpected observa- tion of an increased risk of hyperactivity disorder among circumcised boys in non-Muslim families, need attention, particularly because data limitations most likely rendered our HR estimates conservative. Considering the wide- spread practice of non-therapeutic circumcision in infancy and childhood around the world, confirmatory studies should be given priority.Full Text:http://jrs.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/01/07/0141076814565942.full.pdf

Sunday, December 7, 2014

New to the subject of infant circumcision and the benefits of the prepuce ('foreskin')? The following are resources others have found useful when looking into the subject for the first time. They are meant to be a starting point in a deeper investigation and further research for expecting parents today.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Denmark's parliament will today debate whether male circumcision should be more tightly controlled, days after a finding that 74% of Danes think the procedure should be restricted or banned altogether.

The poll, commissioned by the Danish newspaper Metroxpress, interviewed 1,000 people and found that three-fourths of respondents think there should be either a full or partial ban on infant circumcision. Only 10% thought that there should be no restrictions.

Later today the issue will be debated by politicians, with both the left-wing Red-Green alliance (Ehedslisten) and libertarian party Liberal Alliance advocating some form of ban.
Last year, the Council of Europe adopted a resolution opposing all kinds of ritual circumcision, saying they cast a "moral stain" and "foster hate and racist trends in Europe." The council's resolution recommended that all 47 member states should attempt to regulate circumcision in some way.

In the UK, approximately 1/3 of men were circumcised before the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, but rates soon began to fall as the organisation deemed that the operation was not medically necessary and therefore would not be covered. Today, approximately 9% of men in the UK are circumcised, the BBC reports.
The practice of male circumcision is also falling in the US, where rates of circumcision were traditionally been much higher, hovering at approximately 1/2 of males born for the past two decades.

There is still a great deal of disagreement around the world over the medical impacts of the practice, The Guardian says.
Last year the Danish medical authority, Sundhedsstyrelsen, concluded that there was not enough documentation to recommend the practice on medical grounds, but conversely, there is not enough evidence of risk to justify a total ban either.

Between 1,000 and 2,000 circumcisions are performed in Denmark each year, The Independent reports, with Muslim and Jewish boys making up the great majority of patients.

Note that for a UTI to occur, colonization of a pathogen must first take place. Pathogens that lead to UTIs are most often from fecal matter transmitted to this area of the body during diaper wearing, and/or when a care-giver is attempting to 'clean' a baby's genitals. The best way to prevent colonization from becoming reality in intact male babies and children is to practice proper intact care: that is, leave the foreskin alone. Allow this purposeful organ of the body to do its job: protect the glans and urethral opening and keep pathogens out. Do not retract, mess with, or attempt to 'clean' a baby boy's prepuce (foreskin). Further reading on intact care: http://www.drmomma.org/2009/06/how-to-care-for-intact-penis-protect.html

All rights reserved. Saving Our Sons operates as a not-for-profit organization under PPN. Do not copy/paste articles or photos without author's express written permission. Contact guest authors via SOS at SavingSons@gmail.com